January 28.—Death in New York of Henry P. Kidder, the Boston banker. He was born in Boston, in 1821. During his youth he received the common-school education of those days, displaying in his studies much of the keen sagacity and clearness of intellect which characterized his future business career. Although never a college student, he was always what may justly be termed a well-read man, and, indeed, a learned one. At fifteen years of age he went a mere boy into the wholesale grocery house of Coolidge & Haskell, a firm well-known to many of Boston's older residents. In his capacity as clerk he displayed a marked ability, and won for himself the commendation of his employers. In 1842 Charles Head obtained for him a position in the banking-house of John E. Thayer & Brother. In twelve years he became a partner, and so continued until 1865, when a new firm was started, under the present name of Kidder, Peabody, & Co. Twenty years of unexampled prosperity have placed it in the foremost rank of America's banking establishments.
Mr. Kidder always shrank from publicity, and led a thoroughly domestic life. He, however, was a Republican delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago in 1884. He was president of the American Unitarian Association, Treasurer of the Museum of Fine Arts, State Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital, President of the Children's Mission, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Young Men's Christian Union, and was also connected with most of the charitable institutions and organizations of the city. He had been for many years one of the leading members of the South Congregational Church, and one of its committee, taking a most active part in the work of the society.
January 31.—Death, at Marblehead, of Adoniram C. Orne, a well-known and highly respected citizen of that town, at the age of 74. He was one of the earliest shoe-manufacturers in Marblehead, and a public-spirited citizen, many important local improvements having been suggested and carried into effect by his persistent efforts. He was a consistent advocate of temperance, and was the author of several statistical pamphlets on the subject, some of which are recognized as authority, and have a wide circulation.
February 7.—Death, at Worcester, of Hon. Peter C. Bacon, of the law firm of Bacon, Hopkins, & Bacon. He was born in Dudley, in 1804. He was the son of Jeptha Bacon. He graduated from Brown University in 1827, and later read law at the New Haven Law School, and in the office of Davis & Allen, in Worcester. He was admitted to the bar in 1830, and commenced to practise in his native place, but soon removed to Oxford, where he went into partnership with Ira M. Barton, who subsequently became Judge Barton. In 1845 Mr. Bacon came to Worcester, and had ever since been the leading member of the bar. Since his admission to the bar, fifty-six years ago, Mr. Bacon's office has been a training-school for the youth of the profession, and among his old students are reckoned some of the leading lawyers of the State. Nearly one-half the lawyers in Worcester were formerly students under him, and there is scarcely a State in the Union that has not some representatives from this great law-office.
February 7.—Death, in Boston, of John G. Webster. He was born at Portsmouth, N.H., on the 8th of April, 1811, and was, therefore, nearly 75 years of age. He was a distant kinsman of Daniel Webster. His paternal grandmother was a kinsman of John Locke, the English philosopher and metaphysician. His maternal ancestors, from whom he received his middle name,—the Gerrisbes,—emigrated from England to this country in 1640.
Mr. Webster's early education was in the schools of Portsmouth, N.H., and at a boarding-school of five hundred or six hundred boys, at South Berwick, Me., which he was obliged to leave at the age of fourteen to serve as clerk and book-keeper in a village store. In 1841 Mr. Webster came to Boston and joined his brother, David Locke Webster, who had for several years been engaged in the leather business, and they established the firm of Webster & Co., with a joint capital of $12,000; the same firm is still in existence, one of the oldest, if not the oldest in the same line of business in the city of Boston. In 1845 the firm built a tannery and leather manufactory in Malden, which covered about one acre of ground. The same business now occupies an area of between twelve and fifteen acres. Mr. Webster was in former years one of the most active business men in this vicinity, engaged in many other enterprises outside of his regular business. He was one of the incorporators of the Malden Bank; was its president for several years; was one of the incorporators of the Malden & Melrose Gas Company, and one of the Suffolk Horse Railroad Company, since consolidated with the Metropolitan, of which he was a director and the treasurer for some years. He was director and treasurer of the Boston, Revere Beach, & Lynn Railroad from its incorporation to the year 1880. He was a member of the City Council of Boston in 1855 and 1856. He represented his ward in the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1857, and again in 1880 and 1881.
Mr. Webster, when a young man, was in sympathy with the Whig party; but, on the organization of the Free Soil party, became its earnest supporter, and so continued until the formation of the Republican party, of which he remained an ardent advocate until the day of his death.